09. How can I appeal if my application is turned down?

Whether you can appeal if your immigration application is refused depends on what you were applying for and where the decision was made. If you are refused entry clearance overseas, you can usually appeal. You will not be able to appeal if:

• you wanted to study in the UK for less than six months;  
• you wanted to look for a study course in the UK; or  
• in some cases, you applied for clearance as a visitor.

If you were refused entry clearance to visit the UK, you can appeal only if you were coming for a family visit. There are special rules about family visits, including a long list of which relatives are considered as 'family'. An appeal against refusal to visit the UK is usually dealt with faster than other appeals. You can ask for your appeal to go ahead based on the papers that you and the Entry Clearance Officer send in, or you can ask for a hearing if you have someone in the UK to represent you.

When you are refused entry at a port or airport or when coming through the Channel Tunnel, you can only appeal while you are in the UK if:

• you have entry clearance; or  
• you are returning while you already have permission to be here.

Otherwise, you will be able to appeal only after you have gone back to where you came from. Some students and visitors have no right of appeal.

If you are refused by the Home Office in the UK, you will have a right to appeal if the Home Office has said you must leave the UK. You can't appeal if you are given permission to stay but it is not what you applied for (for example, if you applied to stay permanently, but were given a time limit on your stay).

If the immigration authorities want to send you back because they believe you got your permission by lying, for example, you can appeal against this decision only after you have been sent back.

Your only option while you are still in the UK would probably be a judicial review of the refusal. This procedure looks at whether the authority has acted unlawfully (broken the law) in making its decision, not at whether the decision itself was fair. If you are in this position, you will need expert legal advice.

You will not be able to appeal any decision if the refusal is 'mandatory'. This means the official has no choice to refuse you if:

• you do not have a work permit;  
• you are outside the age range allowed for one of the temporary working categories;  
• you do not hold one of the nationalities required by a rule; or  
• agreeing to your application would take it beyond the maximum time permitted.

How do I appeal?
If your application is turned down, you will be given a notice telling you whether you can appeal. If you can, you will also be given a form to fill in to do this. You must fill in the form and return it within:

• 10 working days if you are appealing in the UK (only 5 days if you are being held in detention); or  
• 28 days if you are appealing from overseas.

You may be able to appeal under other laws as well as the immigration law. The most important of these is the Human Rights Act. This law says (among other things) that the government can't normally make decisions which would 'interfere with your right to respect for private and family life'. If it does this, it has to be for a good reason.

However, this does not mean that you have the right to choose which country you want to live in with your family. The Human Rights Act will only help your immigration appeal in the UK if you can show a good reason why you should not have to live in another country. For more on this, see the Community Legal Service leaflet, 'The Human Rights Act'.

If you think your application has been turned down unfairly because of your race or ethnic origin, you may also be able to appeal under race relations laws.

If you want to base your appeal on human rights or race relations reasons, you do not need to do this separately from your immigration appeal. You must include all the points you want to raise on the same appeal form. However, the law in these areas is complicated, and you would need expert legal advice. See 'Further help' for more about finding advice.